The sport and entertainment platform Dazn has announced it is lifting its paywall on all of its women’s football content and has launched a “New Deal” campaign asking stakeholders in the women’s game to think big in terms of their commitment to its growth.
As a result of the lifting of the paywall, all remaining Women’s Champions League matches this season – as well as 48 games in Spain’s Liga F, 48 in the Frauen Bundesliga, 19 games France’s D1 Arkema, 50 games in Italy’s Serie A Femminile and 15 games in the Women’s Saudi Premier League – will be guaranteed free to air in the UK and they will remain free to air for the foreseeable future.
Hannah Brown, the co-chief executive of women’s sport at Dazn, said the company’s “long-term strategy is about the growth of free‑to‑air coverage”.
Brown said: “The decision marries with the broader commitment to the launch of free. So, we announced this year what we’re going to be doing around ‘freemium’ content, and women’s football sits as part of that strategy. For us as a business it’s the growth of a really important asset and about building a first-party relationship with customers on a global basis.”
In 2021 Dazn bought the exclusive global broadcast rights to the Women’s Champions League and entered a partnership with YouTube. After two years the organisation planned to shift some games behind a paywall, but this decision was scrapped in November. Now, Dazn is opening up access to its coverage of other leagues, too.
“What we see in women’s football is if you put a paywall up, there is a small proportion of people that are prepared to pay for it,” Brown said. “But women’s football fans don’t exhibit those strong pay‑TV characteristics that we’ve seen around premium football in domestic markets, where you see customers make a real pay choice in order to interact with something. Women’s football fans are just not there yet.”
As well as the decision to open up access, Dazn is calling for women’s football stakeholders to invest boldly for the long term to help collectively build the audience.
Named after the 1967 women’s football tournament in Deal, Kent, which broke a ban on women’s football imposed by the Football Association since 1921 and was a catalyst for change, Dazn’s “New Deal” is asking clubs, sponsors, media and broadcast organisations to collaborate and drive the growth of the game.
“In terms of assets and capability, this is a once in a generational investment opportunity,” Brown said. “I don’t think there’s any other sport asset class that is as exciting as women’s football. And the struggles the game has been through to get to where it is at today means that the bedrock of support it has is going to be very hard for anybody to pull back from.”
